New boson particle found, possibly higgs

[Bad^Hat]

http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR17.12E.html

“We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage,” said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, “but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication.”

"The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks."

The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe. Are its properties as expected for the long-sought Higgs boson, the final missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics? Or is it something more exotic? The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles from which we, and every visible thing in the universe, are made, and the forces acting between them. All the matter that we can see, however, appears to be no more than about 4% of the total. A more exotic version of the Higgs particle could be a bridge to understanding the 96% of the universe that remains obscure.

Tentative woo!

 

[ríomhaire]

Wooo!

 

[mechanicallizard]

WOOOO


the **** is this thread about

 

[morgs]

Haha I have no idea, but I'm going to asume it's the possibility of a great scientific discovery and a step forward for physicists everywhere, so

woo!

 

[Bad^Hat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

I'm pretty terrible at the physics but essentially it's a (the?) missing link in the standard model, a theory used to describe physical interactions at any observable level. If scientists' predictions are true, it's an essential part of the phenomenon that gives particles their mass. So yeah, kind of a big deal.

 

[Danny_ZQ]

So yeah, kind of a big deal.

Kind of? This is a HUGE deal! This is history in the making! Probably!

 

[KiplingsCat]

Meh. It's either history in the making, or a bird pooped on their equipment.

I won't be getting my hopes up about this until they go downstairs to the LHC and double-check for bird poop. Then maybe I'll truly believe them. But until then, they're still the shower of clowns who started mass media hype when they let slip that they got the speed of light wrong.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

I belive they've already considered birdpoopions popping in from the future, modifying data. I mean, with a large enough data set, that's an obvious possibility.

 

[Raziaar]

Finders, Keepers / Losers, Weepers.

 

[Edeslash]

As far as I know it was basically a small anomaly in a massive amount of data. And it just happens to match the Higg's boson perfectly.

 

[sinkoman]

As far as I know it was basically a small anomaly in a massive amount of data. And it just happens to match the Higg's boson perfectly.

But... Isn't that how discoveries are made?

 

[Edeslash]

But... Isn't that how discoveries are made?

Didn't mean the critisize or anything. I believe it is the Higg's boson.

Also, media pls stop using the term God particle.

 

[ríomhaire]

"the god particle, also known as the Higgs Boson" No! Bad media! It's the other way around!

 

[KiplingsCat]

Now everybody who knows me is all like "so you're a physicist, I bet you're all excited about the God Particle" and then they proceed to expect me to know things about the Higgs Boson and ask me questions about it and tell me what they read on the BBC, but I know nothing about the Higgs Boson because I'm a radio astronomer! I couldn't care less about the Higgs Boson! Stupid Higgs Boson.

 

[mechanicallizard]

But youre a radio astronomer why dont you know anything about the higgs boson?

 

[Krynn72]

Yeah, doesn't God live in outer space? Why wouldn't you know anything about His particle if you study the place He lives?

 

[KiplingsCat]

The bits of outer space that I look at are so far away that the light coming to me from them left long before God was invented. So I really wouldn't be an expert on that bit of science.

I am, however, apparently qualified to tell you your horoscope. Tell me which arbitrary assembly of stellar objects was in the sky on the day you were born, and I'll infer what your weekend is going to be like.

 

[Stylo]

Also, media pls stop using the term God particle.

This ^ Terribly misleading name.

Eet ees naathing to doo wit God / the existence thereof.

It's a previously (until now possibly) hypothetical elementary particle that can help us understand the structure of matter / explain the origin of mass in elementary particles.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Now everybody who knows me is all like "so you're a physicist, I bet you're all excited about the God Particle" and then they proceed to expect me to know things about the Higgs Boson and ask me questions about it and tell me what they read on the BBC, but I know nothing about the Higgs Boson because I'm a radio astronomer! I couldn't care less about the Higgs Boson! Stupid Higgs Boson.

How did they ever let you on the radio with that attitude?

 

[Stigmata]

Meh. It's either history in the making, or a bird pooped on their equipment.

I won't be getting my hopes up about this until they go downstairs to the LHC and double-check for bird poop. Then maybe I'll truly believe them. But until then, they're still the shower of clowns who started mass media hype when they let slip that they got the speed of light wrong.

Either that or there was another piece of bread clogging up a heat dissipator.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Basically the other particles are lightweight and therefore don't make sense as to how things have mass. But this one is heavy, so mass.

 

[Lobster]

Here is a video in which Santa Claus attempts to explain the Higgs-Bosun using wintry metaphors.

 

[Krynn72]

 

[Bad^Hat]

My brother walked by while I was looking at that image and didn't get it, so I tried to (shoddily) explain what the higgs boson was, then when I asked if he got the pun he asked me what a church mass was. ****.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

****.

Might be a good thing?

 

[Krynn72]

I'll confess, I'm not exactly sure what they are either. As far as I know, its just a normal uh, church class, but longer. It may also be the one where you get crackers and booze, but I'm not sure. They never offered enough crackers or booze to make me go.

 

[mechanicallizard]

I hear they even water it down, so count me out.

 

[KiplingsCat]

I'll confess, I'm not exactly sure what they are either. As far as I know, its just a normal uh, church class, but longer. It may also be the one where you get crackers and booze, but I'm not sure. They never offered enough crackers or booze to make me go.

It's where everyone goes into the church and sits down, and then the priest stands up and says some stuff, and then everybody in the church repeats bits of it back to him in unison, and there's a lot of sitting down and standing up and kneeling on the little kneely-cushion-thing at various intervals, and then there's crackers but not booze (only the priest gets that) and they pass around this little basket thing that everybody's supposed to put their small change into, and at one stage everybody gets to shake hands with everyone within their reach (that's the least boring bit, especially if you're with friends), and then the priest says "the mass is over go in peace" and then you can leave.

(All my family are Catholics except me. My parents haven't bothered with it in years, my dad's side are fairly unenthusiastic about it, but my mum's side are well up for a few crackers and a good old pray every Sunday).

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Now everybody who knows me is all like "so you're a physicist, I bet you're all excited about the God Particle" and then they proceed to expect me to know things about the Higgs Boson and ask me questions about it and tell me what they read on the BBC, but I know nothing about the Higgs Boson because I'm a radio astronomer! I couldn't care less about the Higgs Boson! Stupid Higgs Boson.

I hate Higgs Boson. I don't even know why we have a Higgs Boson. Total suck-Boson.

 

[Stigmata]

Boson? The Boson Higgs? He was the best goddamn squid wrangler this lab had ever seen. Don't tell me you've got a hard-off for the Higgs!

 

[Stylo]

crackers but not booze (only the priest gets that)

Wat.

I think the Priest at your family's church may be swindling attendants out of wine. Pretty sure everyone is supposed to receive a cracker and small amount of wine to represent the body and blood of the J-man.

 

[ríomhaire]

Wat.

I think the Priest at your family's church may be swindling attendants out of wine. Pretty sure everyone is supposed to receive a cracker and small amount of wine to represent the body and blood of the J-man.

I have never heard of everyone getting wine. There could be a few hundred people at a given mass in a big church. They'd need a stupid amount of wine. Generally wine is only given to the priests, ministers of the eucharist and celiacs who can't take the bread.

 

[Stigmata]

I have never heard of everyone getting wine. There could be a few hundred people at a given mass in a big church. They'd need a stupid amount of wine. Generally wine is only given to the priests, ministers of the eucharist and celiacs who can't take the bread.

The few times I've been to mass I got wine, but it was always in one of those shitty little 10mL paper sample cups you sometimes see in malls and giant grocery stores. It was also Christmas mass, so that might have had something to do with it.

 

[Viperidae]

I find it a little funny that despite everyone's vehement anti-religion (specifically Christianity) they still don't know its most basic ceremonies.

Everyone is supposed to get wine/bread. Body and blood of Christ. If they don't, your church is cheap. Depending on your flavour of protestantism, you might be required to be baptised in order to receive them.

 

[Edeslash]

In Finland, everyone (older than 15) gets booze.

The alcoholic redneck stereotype is like so false...

 

[Stigmata]

I find it a little funny that despite everyone's vehement anti-religion (specifically Christianity) they still don't know its most basic ceremonies.

Why is that funny? I don't need to know the rituals to understand the many logical failures of the belief system that asks for them.

 

[Krynn72]

I find it a little funny that despite everyone's vehement anti-religion (specifically Christianity) they still don't know its most basic ceremonies.

I knew someone was going to say that. I thought it would be someone dumber though :/

What difference does it make what color the walls are of a house whose foundation is made out of cardboard? I'd still be vehemently anti-anyone-living-in-that-house, would you not?

 

[KiplingsCat]

Wat.

I think the Priest at your family's church may be swindling attendants out of wine. Pretty sure everyone is supposed to receive a cracker and small amount of wine to represent the body and blood of the J-man.

That's only for Protestants. Catholics don't get booze. At mass.

Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I was raised not directly in, but around, this stuff.

Depending on your flavour of protestantism, you might be required to be baptised in order to receive them.

Catholicisim isn't a flavour of Protestantism.

Only Catholics celebrate mass. Protestants call it something else.

 

[Viperidae]

Catholicisim isn't a flavour of Protestantism.

Only Catholics celebrate mass. Protestants call it something else.

In my brain I was just thinking about the eucharist when I posted that. You're of course correct. Too much protestantism/alcoholism in Western Canada.

What difference does it make what color the walls are of a house whose foundation is made out of cardboard? I'd still be vehemently anti-anyone-living-in-that-house, would you not?

Because that's the same attitude I see people in academia and pretty much everywhere use as a defence of ignorance about history and culture.

"Some parts of this hugely significant institution that pervades all of Western history are bad! Therefore we must ignore all of it and its effects! Just keep telling people it's bad!"

"In the Middle Ages sanitation was horrible! People died! The whole period and its culture must have been awful! **** em! Nothing important happened!"

"The Restoration bores me. Let's ignore the whole era, and ignore its complete revamp of English law!"

"This fifth century philosopher was Christian. Let's ignore everything he said and fellate Descartes some more!"


Judging a piece of culture as evil or bad or immoral isn't an excuse for turning off your brain.

 

[Mr Stabby]

Catholics also believe the bread literally turns into Jesus (Transubstantiation). Also Protestants call it communion instead of mass, they also believe the bread and wine are symbolic, not literally Jesus.